Massachusetts Books

Joyful Noise is back in print! Yeah! I've become a regular to the area of Massachusetts where the book is set, and this book was great summer reading for me. It's a wonderful story about all the characters of her family, and their adventures. Beautifully written.

My family and I discovered this book on a summer vacation in Cape Cod. Ever since, whenever we've found it at used book sales we've snapped it up to give to friends. Warm, hilarious, endearing, inspiring (to parents hoping to create the same quality of memories for their own children), this book, though set in the 1920s and very much a part of that era, is in its depiction of family relationships, timeless.

One of my favorite memories is of my father, a dignified man, now deceased, attempting to read aloud to me a section dealing with Pop and the Reader's Digest... he was chuckling so hard he was hoarse and had to stop and wipe tears from his eyes. (Twelve years later I can still see him.)

Buy this book and dive in for a wonderful read.

When Aunt K forgets that there's not a horse in front of the car and drives off the road, I laughed out loud. This special look into Janet Gillespie's time spent at her grandmother's home in Westport Point, MA is delightful. Stories of sailing to the mudflats to hunt for clams, unforgettable special breakfasts and funny visitors from the city are told so you see clearly an era gone by - a time when summers - and bare feet - went on forever. What a happy childhood!

My grandmother wrote this book and I believe it is a gem! She has a wonderful story telling ability and an amazing ability to recall her happy childhood. Her sense of humor is evident throughout the book. One of my favorite chapters refers to her trip to the church bazaar to purchase Christmas presents for her parents and her brothers. She was so joyful in her purchases - presents to which she gave a great deal of thought. I have shared this book with several of my friends and have always recieved rave reviews. If you get ahold of a copy of it - hang onto it! It is a treasure.

I logged on to see if there's an excerpt of this wonderful book, so I could send it to all my family and friends online. I am only 60 pages into it - because the copy I bought for my husband has been out of loan constantly! We love Westport so I thought my husband was biased in saying this was a great book as he laughed out loud, but once again, he is SO right! Read this book if you love to see the humor in family relationships!

The Marble Kite, by David Daniel, is the fourth in a series of mysteries which involve private investigator Alex Rasmussen. The plot is situated in the mostly-blue-collar city of Lowell, Massachusetts, an old mill town on the banks of the Merrimack River.

Troy Pepper is a carnival roustabout who is accused of murdering the woman he loved. He was raised in an orphanage, and through his life of solitude and rejection has lost his trust in people. He makes no effort to defend himself. Alex, perhaps from having experienced his own share of solitude and rejection, is determined to prove Pepper's innocence.

The book is filled with images of the downtrodden and the unspoken heroes of working-class America, which include: an old man that Rasmussen sees through a hotel doorway who is sitting on his bed in his underwear, staring at nothing; a woman who takes care of her elderly mother who is in the final stages of Alzheimer, who tells Alex "...eventually each of us ends up in the cemetery, flying a marble kite"; a black jazz guitarist who sacrifices his profession to save his drummer; a southeast Asian 14-year-older who lands in the hospital after trying to quit a gang; and waitresses "... on tired feet, looking for a snug harbor, however temporary, and some companionship to share the lonely stretches after a long shift..."

The plot weaves nicely, and Lowell is portrayed vividly as you follow Rasmussen through the streets, mills, and office buildings.

Very gripping mystery. Keeps you guessing until the end and then a surprise! Very fun. You really feel for these charactors. I highly recommend it.

David Daniel continues to thrill readers with intelligent stories, crisp prose, and intriguing characters. Marble Kite is no exception--the carnies are fascinating and PI Alex Rasmussen as sharp as in Daniel's earlier novels. A great read.

David Daniel continues to please with Alex Rasmussen Mystery series. His latest, The Marble Kite is his finest, in fact. Set entirely in the hardscrabble Industrial Revolution town of Lowell Mass, Marble Kite is edgier that its predecessor, Goofy Foot. At once, this is a gripping whodunit and a great police story. PI Alex Rasmussen effectively weaves his way through the mean streets and bars of the low-rent (and fascinating) Acre section of Lowell in route to solving his most problematic case.

Daniel is particularly impressive developing the characters, especially Nicole and Pop. You can visualize what they might look and sound like through his words. While PI Alex Rasmussen is not as testosterone fueled as Parker's Spenser, he is certainly as quick-witted and tough enough. Daniel's good karma comes through in spades and it shows in Alex's moral fiber.

In addition, the ambiance of Marble Kite is a cut above most PI Mystery novels. At one point, as Alex is nursing a beating and contemplating why he should continue on the case while his life is failing apart around him, you can almost hear Gil Scott Heron's Pieces of a Man playing in the background.

Daniel has developed into a first-rate storyteller and Marble Kite is a top-notch mystery. Just in time for the real carnival coming to the Regatta.

In Lowell, Massachusetts, private investigator Alex Rasmussen is enjoying his fourth date with Phoebe Kelly at a carnival. He is on the verge of winning her a stuffed animal when a scream occurs. Dropping the mallet, Alex rushes to the locale of the shriek only to find a small growing crowd surrounding a dead woman.

The next day local attorney Fred Meecham informs Alex that the carnival owner Pop Sondry hired him to represent the prime suspect in last night's carnival murder Troy Pepper. The lawyer further explains that Pop is convinced that his employee is innocent. Fred hires Alex to make inquiries into Troy, the victim Flora Nunez, and other carnival employees. Alex puts aside his insurance work to conduct a field investigation into the murder of Flora.

THE MARBLE KITE is an entertaining regional private investigative tale starring a delightful protagonist. Alex seems very realistic as he is a bit annoyed that his date was ruined just when he is just getting back into the scene having been divorced, waiting for a reconciliation and finally watching his ex remarry and have someone else's child. The who-done-it is cleverly devised so that the audience wonders why Pop thinks Troy is innocent as the circumstantial evidence points heavily towards him. David Daniel provides a fabulous murder mystery that will send newcomers seeking previous starring roles of Alex (see GOOFY FOOT).

Harriet Klausner

Highly recommended series. I recommend as an alternative to the Little House series for boys. Well written.

Another inspiring account of the Moody fanily. This time the scene is Massachusetts. The earlier books were set in the American West. Mary Emma is the mother of the clan. She is determined that her family will make its own way in life. She gets a job in a sweatshop to learn how to do fancy laundering. Ralph works at a store in his spare time. Almost all of the children do something to help earn a living.At school Ralph gets in trouble for things that wouldn't have mattered in Colorado. The younger children are seen more in this book than they were previously. Grace is now a young lady who is tempted to put on airs. The whole family's work ethic stands out as refreshing compared to many young folks of today. Their grit and determination are to be admired. I recommend the reading of this book by any one of any age.

As a forth grader in Colorado our teacher read the first two books in Ralph Moody's series to our class. Now, almost 30 years later I'm reading the whole series to my family, we love them. Even our 3 year old asks me to read them at bed time.

Mr. Moody's descriptions and the story of his life are more than touching and heartwarming, they are important lessions in morality, life and love. You cannot help but fall in love with young Ralph, his independant mother, and all the rest of her children.

You will laugh and cry as this young cowboy and his family make a new home in Boston. Starting with almost nothing, through hard work the whole family pitches in to make their own way. Rich with history, this book is about life, both the good parts, as well as the bad and how one young man, lived it (mistakes and all).

Even if you don't think you like reading, try these books. They will change your mind.

This, the fourth volume in Ralph Moody's reminiscences, picks up immediately after the close of "Man of the Family." It's January, 1912, and widowed Mary Emma Moody, unwilling to give testimony that may send an innocent man to the gallows, has fled Colorado with her six children, of whom the eldest are Gracie, almost 15, and Ralph, 13, to the suburbs of Boston, where her brother Frank and his family live. Crammed into Frank's two-bedroom apartment, her first priority is to find quarters they can afford to rent, followed by work at which to earn a living--taking in laundry, since she's already used to that. Obstacles soon arise: rents are far higher in Massachusetts than in Colorado, and Mary Emma has to learn a whole new style of ironing when it becomes obvious that she'll have to do fine washing for families rather than hotel curtains. But Ralph soon finds part-time work in a neighborhood store, which leads the family, before long, to the rental of half an old Victorian house and a windfall of a houseful of furniture to go in it for only $50. Then there's a neglected furnace and leaky water pipes to struggle with, and pickups and deliveries to make in the midst of a blizzard, and the question of affordable coal. But with help from Uncle Frank and Great-Uncle Levi (a delightful and vividly-described character), along with Ralph's employers and his new friends among the neighborhood boys, their first five months in their new home end on an upbeat note as they celebrate May Day with an avalanche of baskets for Gracie--and one for Mary Emma from her "best lover," second son Philip.

Moody's trademark humor and vivid description is the hallmark of this book, especially when he tells of Frank and Levi's pitch-in to renovate the cellar laundry room and the bridge fire which ends by gifting the Moodys with a huge load of saleable kindling wood. His ongoing enmity with his school principal, who seems to have prejudged him a "bad boy," and his seesaw relationship with Cop Watson, who alternately warns him to take care and assists him and his friends with their wood-salvage operation, are other high points, as is the night sledding expedition to the old clay-pit where Gracie--often depicted as bossy and high-toned--forgets for a while that she's growing up and originates a daring "circle route." It's a bit disappointing that he gives little attention to what must have been a wrenching change in his life (after four years in the West he has come to think of himself as a kind of apprentice cowboy), but on balance, the story is a fascinating and inspiring one.

This book is one of Ralph's great. The Moody Family goes through lot's off hardships after leaving Colorado.

First, a disclosure. I know and respect Dr. Flaherty.
I agree completely with the prior reviewers. This book aims at being an accessible, authoritative reference for trainees. It definitely achieves and even surpasses those aims. It is useful for non-neurologists as well.

It is an excellent and very practical book about what we do every day, reminding us quickly of all the steps to have the best results for our patients. I highly recommend this book to medical students, internists and neurologists.

UNDOUBTEDLY ONE OF THE BEST 'RESIDENT FRIENDLY' NEUROLOGY BOOKS OF ALL TIME. BUY IT TODAY IF YOU DONT HAVE IT YET. USEFUL FOR WARD ROUNDS. OTHER USEFUL BOOKS / SOFTWARE I FOUND INCLUDE THE SOFTWARE NEUROLOGY TUTOR 1.01 WHICH I DOWNLOADED FROM www.peakdoctor.org AND ADAMS AND VICTOR (which you can find on amazon.com)

No other neurology handbook packs as much useful information so succinctly. I wouldn't be without it on the wards. Lots of imaging coverage. It also has relevant coverage of psychiatry, medicine, and neurosurgery.

This thin handbook is as indispensible as your neurology tools during residency training. It packs a lot of information in a tiny space and covers many topics. It does not have references or prognostic stats, but it will help you in DDx, basic management issues, or just simply act as a reminder when you can't quite remember details about something. I was pleasantly surprised at how much info is in this book. Highly recommended.

It made it very easy to find where the lighthouses are located and a nice article on each one.

On medium-weight, semi-glossy paper, this beautiful and durable map folds out to approximately 2 feet by 3. On one side is a three-color highway map of the coasts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, inlaid with paragraphs on several of the lighthouses and framed by watercolor pictures of each. The reverse side describes all 50 Massachusetts lighthouses, standing or not, and both New Hampshire's. The descriptions give a short history, the optimal viewing spot, directions, contact information, hours of operation, transportation options, etc.

If you are interested in lighthouses, Massachusetts or New Hampshire, shipping or maps, you will probably love this great map. Travellers will find it indispensable. What a bargain!

No traveller in search of Massachusetts' lighthouses should be without this extremely useful map. Beautiful watercolor illustrations too!

This map and guide covers lights in both MA and NH. In June of 2000 I used this map to visit Lighthouses in MA & NH. This map was very useful. On one side is a map pointing out the locations. On the other side there are details for each individual light such as: directions, hours, and phone numbers. I am from Michigan so I was not familiar with New England at all. Some of these lights were hard to find even with the map because some roads are not clearly marked. But I did find everything I was looking for. The price of these maps is an incredible bargain. Some people buy two of them so they can hang one on the wall to display the watercolor images and get another to use.

This was a great resource in locating lighthouses - compact, yet gives specific directions on which lighthouses could be visited and how to get there. Very nice layout, design, pictures, etc.

Great book for those visiting or moving to Boston. A bit large to carry around.

This atlas has excellent maps of Boston and suburban communities. It was a big help on my recent trip to the Boston area. The main distraction is it's a book of individual town maps colated alphabetically. As you drive across the area, you have to page between different maps in the book, and I couldn't find coverage of two spots that fell between towns. I find it easier to use an atlas laid out on a grid system like the San Diego County Street Guide published by Thomas. There is a guide map showing the grid making it easy to find the page to go to. As you travel east or west, you just turn the page for a continuation of the map. North-south travel is a bit more difficult; you have to look at the top or bottom of the page for the page number to go to next. DeLorme atlases are designed this way, too. The Metro Boston Atlas has some page number references to adjoining maps, but many are missing.

American Map consistently produces the best atlases (ADC's atlases are ususally a close second), and this is incontestably the best available resource for navigating the streets of Boston and its suburbs. The Boston area is intelligently divided here into maps for each of the city's neighborhoods and outlying communities, and the detail is rich and reliable throughout. But the best aspect of this atlas, like any other from American Map, is the clarity and simplicity it achieves in spite of its detail. Highly recommended.

I purchased this book for my son who is moving to Salem, Mass., from Michigan in August 2006. He took it with him when he went apartment hunting and said it was "a great help." He also used it to explore Boston. He found it to be very detailed. He liked the fact that it is spiral bound, staying open easily on the needed page. For myself, I found the print just a tad too small, but being 52, my eyesight is not what it was... My son did not find this a problem. In fact, he felt that with bigger print, the book would be increased in size unfavorably.

If you're going to Boston and don't know you're way around, you will need this book. You will need to sit down and really look at it, and then keep it with you. If you get lost, don't try and use logic or common sense to unravel your path. Just pull over and get your map out, and make a plan before you try and inch your way back into traffic.

This has got to be the most user-unfriendly town in America. If you are not from here, good luck trying to get around. Even my buddy with GPS gets lost because the thing cannot react fast enough, and doesn't know how to convey directions such as "stay in the left lane, lane markings will disappear and reappear later on slightly different planes, but stay left because the road will suddenly split, but then immediately take a left turn, but not the first left but the slightly more obtuse left turn radiating from just ten yards further down the street." If you a make a mistake, do not imagine for a moment that you can fix it easily. You can go on unimaginable adventures just trying to turn around. For example, if you want to make a left on to Mass Ave from Somerville road, well, you just can't, but that shouldn't be a big deal, you just make a right and find a place to turn around. However, you will literally drive from city to city before you find a place to turn around. I know everybody thinks their own town is eccentric, but Boston is hands down the most passive-aggressive city to newcomers or visitors. Streets change names multiple times in a short stretch, have different names on different sides of the street, all while multiple streets will have the same name. Which is all irrelevant because if you are fortunate enough to see a street sign, it is probably too late to react to it. People here don't seem phased by it, they are often surprised to find out that other cities are laid out in a grid, where the streets hit each other at right angles, four corners only per intersection, and you can actually point yourself in the direction of where are going and find your way there with reason and will alone.

These maps are a nice guide for pedestrians too. And, actually, walking is the easiest way to get around Boston. The challenge of course for pedestrians would still be the Boston drivers. If the cars do stop before hitting you, the drivers will give you a look that let's you know that you've been fortunate. It's a look that says, "I'm not going to hit you with my car, but please understand that this is a choice I have made, at great sacrifice. Your life is henceforth a privilege I've granted you."

One more little thing that complicates getting around Boston. Let's do this in the form of a quiz. Give your best guess at how to pronounce the following neighborhoods: Berlin, Billerica, Cochituate, Leicester, Leominster, Peabody, Woburn, Worcester. Aren't you silly, where y'from, Iowa?

Though I normally don't read many detective mysteries, I read this one by my friend, law professor Jack Dobbyn. The action moves, the humor is wry, and the book is well plotted and well written. Set in Boston, it offers fascinating information on the tongs that terrorize chinatowns in many American cities. A great read.

First Sentence: Suppose you were to wake up one Monday morning to a promising, amber sun rising out of Boston Harbor.

Michael Knight is a young attorney in a very prestigious Boston law firm. Lex Devlin is a legendary attorney whose career was nearly ruined by rumor that he bought a juror. Now the two are working together to defend, and prove innocent, the son of an important Judge. The young man is accused of shooting a revered elderly man in Chinatown. In the investigation, Michael, with his college friend Harry, sees sides of Chinatown he didn't know existed and he may not survive the experience.

Gripping, exciting, suspenseful--over the top at times but boy, did it keep me turning the pages. There was good development of the main characters, wonderful wry humor and a chance to visit my favorite city of Boston and the drive to Canada. I can't ensure the accuracy of the legal scenes, but considering Dobbyn was a practicing lawyer and now a professor of law, I have to assume they are correct. They certainly aren't dull, as is nothing in this book. If you are looking for an exciting weekend read, this is it. I'll also admit I also loved that his inside cover picture is him, his wife and their dog.

My awesome sister-in-law TOOK the picture that is now the cover of this book! Also, she named her picture "neon dragon" BEFORE the book was ever written....HOW COOL IS THAT!!!!
Yes - she's very talented!!!!! Just thought I would share! Thought some of you might find this info interesting!

In Boston Michael Knight works as a third year associate attorney at Bilson, Dawes, Leftbridge & Sykes law firm. Thus he is shocked when African-American judge Amos Bradley, expected to be named to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court soon, asks him to represent his son Anthony, who is accused of killing sexagenarian Mr. Chen An-Young during a New Year's parade. The shooting has angered the Chinese-American community as Mr. Chen was a well respected grandfather.

Knight visits the incarcerated Anthony at the Suffolk County prison where he finds his client articulate and grateful. Anthony insists he is guilty of only agreeing to go with his friend Terry Blocher to attend the Chinese New Year gala. At the office, attorney Alexis "Lex" Devlin offers to help Michael with the case; Alexis was the top gun until a decade ago when a jury-tampering charge forced Lex into "hiding". The case looks hopeless on the surface, but with Knight following clues that take him into nasty neighborhoods, he believes he can prove his client's innocence that is if he stays alive long enough.

The protagonist knew nothing about government corruption or Chinese organized gangs in spite of being in the prosecutor's office for four years before he joined his current firm and grew up in the city. Knight is a terrific protagonist who, with his mentor, makes for a delightful Bostonian joy ride. The story line is fast-paced and includes some fun references to Beantown literary sleuths. However, it is the courtroom that makes this a fine legal thriller as fans of the sub-genre will enjoy the teaming of Michael and Lex.

Harriet Klausner

As a long time fan of Dobbyn's short stories in Ellery Queen, Hitchcock, et al,I read his first full length novel with eager anticipation.Neon Dragon did not disapppoint & in fact was a great read!
Fast paced with well placed sarcasm & wry humor, the story & characters pull one in & make it difficult to put down ala Patterson & Grisham.However, Dobbyn has a style uniquely his own. His scenes in & about Boston bring back images that I as a former Bostonian can really appreciate.
I look forward to his next novel.

C.F.DiSilva

The stories in this collection by Michael Lee come at you with a humor and humanity that to this reader's mind and heart tell the story of American manhood today. These are stories about guys with heart trying hard to preserve their good humor and what dignity a world that could mostly care less allows them. There are no literary posturings here, just literature at its quiet, touching, funny, enjoyable best. This would be a great gift for just about any man between the ages of 25 and 70 -- and for any woman who wants a glimpse of how we tick! The only bad thing about this book is that it ends. More, Mr Lee, more!

"PARADISE DANCE" IS A GREAT READ!

LAUGHED, CRIED AND WAS DEFINITELY MOVED.

LEE'S GRASP OF HIS CHARACTERS AND THE CHALLENGES THEY ENCOUNTER
EXHIBITS AN ADEPT UNDERSTANDING OF THE QUIET NOBILITY THAT RESIDES
IN THE HUMAN CONDITION.

THE BEST COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES I'VE READ THIS SEASON.

LEE HAS THE GOODS!

Michael Lee captures the heart's hidden emotions of our day to days most ordinary and mundane interludes. Each and every person
who reads this book will look with new insight into their lives and those closest to them. This collection of short stories is a must read.

Mike Lee's ability to turn a phrase is akin to the joy that newly washed windows bring: sudden clarity to unexpected views.

People come first in Lee's world, and he introduces some beauts and some beauties. From Frankie and Bobby in Oklahoma to "Nola" Bowden, all of his characters express their innermost thoughts whether we're ready or not.

Lee is able to describe feelings many of us have shared in language that is crisp and direct, but applied in circumstances that few, if any, could claim to share. Neither the plight of budding entrepeneurs in the XXX sports market, nor the happiness of an immobile street performer in Paris tickled a neuron of identification with me, but the desperate need to succeed or simply to be the first in one's family to be happy are so fundamental that each of us is able is pick off a piece of such longing to consume and reflect on.

"Paradise Dance" is an eclectic package of disparate characters brought to the edge by a handful of emotions. Where the hell is Albright , Massachusetts anyway?

Michael Lee all have in common? They all appear somewhere in Michael Lee's Paradise Dance. OK, OK, it's a stretch, but the facts are still darn impressive.
Carrol-(winner of National Book Award) wrote the foward to this book.
Dubus III and Mailer-Recommended the book on the book sleeve. So who is Michael Lee?

Michael is a talented author from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. His hard hitting and often humorous stories take place in the fictitious working class town of Albright, MA. One thing you should know is that people like the Clevers, the Andersons, the Bradys, the Wilsons, and the Partridge's don't appear in this collection. Certainly if they lived in Albright, you won't meet them in this excellant collection. The folks you meet in Albright are the regular, unhappy souls, he would find in any normal American working class town. You will find out their stories, their strange behaviors, their interesting hobbies (Adult XXX,mini-golf anyone?), and their deep dark wishes. The stories are well written, short, bittersweet and punchy. You get to know the people from Albright individually in each story, and then Lee will take you to the next scene, the next story. Using the town as the common thread works wonderfully here and in my humble opinion, Micheal Lee will be a man on the literary move, a force to be reckoned with.

The Coming Fury by Bruce Catton is one of the best Civil War books that I've read, and the second volume in his American Civil War Trilogy, Terrible Swift Sword, is even better. I can understand why these books have continued to be popular almost 50 years from when they were first published.

Terrible Swift Sword begins after the First Battle of Bull Run and runs through Antietam. With Bull Run, both sides realized that this was going to be a long-term, all out war and that there was no going back. Both sides also realized that they were woefully unprepared for what lay ahead. Catton is at his best in presenting not just the battles, but also the many other facets of the war (politics, leaders, etc.) in a way that is very informative yet easy to read. As for battles, Catton spends much time with Shiloh, the Peninsula Campaign, the Spring Campaigns of Kentucky and Tennessee, New Orleans and Second Bull Run. It is fascinating to read so much about the western campaigns. It seems that many Civil War books highlight the eastern campaigns (around Maryland and Virginia) at the expense of the western battles. Yet, it was the western campaigns that gave the Union a much-needed jumpstart in the war effort.

While Catton gives us a good bit of information, his analytical skills in tying it all together is second to none. In describing the first battle between the ironclads, he writes "When morning came, ironclad would fight ironclad...and every navy in the world would have to rebuild." He also analyzes how the very principles that brought about the Confederacy attributed to its downfall. "The Southern people might in truth be all fire and ardor, but they were bound by the rigid limits of the theorem on which they had seceded."

With two books down and one to go in The American Civil War Trilogy, I hate to see it come to an end. But Catton was prolific in his Civil War writing and I'll have to start reading some of his other Civil War works.

"Terrible Swift Sword" is the second volume of Bruce Catton's classic Centennial History of the Civil War. First published in 1963, the series remains highly worthwhile despite the inevitable advances in scholarship, thanks to Catton's superb presentation of the history of the Civil War as dramatic literature.

Catton, a journalist and public official before becoming an historian, has a remarkable gift for capturing both the very human leaders trapped in the fog of war at the center of events and the grander themes that drove events.

Much of the story arc of "Terrible Swift Sword" centers around the career of George B. McClellan, brought in to lead the Union Army of the Potomac after the fiasco of First Bull Run. McClellan rebuilds the Army and infuses it with spirit, yet proves reluctant to use it in battle. After much prompting from Lincoln, McClellan will take the Army of the Potomac south to Hampton Roads, there to begin a cautious assualt on Richmond from the East. The campaign eventually stalls before Richmond and the counterattack of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The Army of the Potomac is ultimately withdrawn. McClellan will give way temporarily as senior Union General in the East to John Pope, who is promptly thrashed at Second Bull Run. McClellan returns to lead the Army of the Potomac to Antietnam in pursuit of Lee's Army. There, McClellan's lack of killer instinct allows Lee to escape with a tactical draw. McClellan's failure to use his superior numbers and position to destroy Lee or to pursue his battered army will finally take him out of the war.

Against the background of the toils of the Army of the Potomac are the steadily hardening attitudes toward the prosecution of the war. The recognition, especially in Congress and in the Lincoln Administration, that this conflict must become a war to the death leads to the Emancipation Proclamation and to a weeding of the ranks of general officers. Those perceived not to have their heart in the fight are soon removed, and some are made an example. The investigation of Union General Stone after the fiasco of Ball's Bluff is manifestly unfair to Stone, as is his imprisonment afterward; it is meant to be a warning to other generals. It is in this context that General Grant's hard-nosed campaigning in the West is noticed in Washington, D.C.

This book is highly recommended to students and fans of the Civil War. It continues to be a wonderful reading experience.

Just as Volumn 1, 'The Coming Fury' this is an amazing piece of work, Volumn 2, 'Terrible Swift Sword' that will capture you within its' pages. You will be taken through the escalation of the war. You will learn of the great as well as the poor decisions made by the governments of the Union as well as the Confederacy. You will learn just how close the war came to the involvment of the British government. This book ends around the last of the year 1862.
You will not be able to put it down and the only consolation to finishing this work is the fact that you can now start on Volumn 3, 'Never Call Retreat.'

Nearly 40 years after it was first published, Catton's "Terrible Swift Sword", the second book of his Civil War Centennial history, remains fresh. As he would do in all three volumes, Catton deftly weaves together the military, political, and social aspects of the war in a fashion that is not only readable, but positively lyrical in his use of language. He is, IMHO, at his poetic best in descibing the seismic shift in war aims, from a conflict to restore the union to one waged for human freedom.

Ably assisted by the research of E.B. Long, Catton makes good use of a wide range of sources in covering the period of the war from First Bull Run to just before the tragedy at Fredericksburg. While he doesn't break any new ground (that wasn't his intent), he provides the reader with a sweeping narrative of this critical period in our most traumatic conflict. Catton's trilogy is one of the best places to start if one is seeking an introduction to the Civil War. Buy it.

"The Terrible Swift Sword" continues Bruce Catton's journey through the Civil in this, the middle book in his trilogy. Covering the period from the summer of 1861 through the fall of 1862, Catton leads the reader through the military, political and social aspects of the war.

Here we meet Charles Francis Adams, American Ambassador in London as he maneuvers to maintain British neutrality while British cloth industry manufacturers and laborers scream for Southern cotton.

The story of the Eastern front in this book is essentially the story of the McClellan era. The close relationship between McClellan and the Army of the Potomac was a unique and mutual exchange of devotion and affection.

In the Western theatre, the reader studies the battles of Shiloh and others which led to the gradual deterioration of the Confederate position in the Western states.

One enticing feature about Catton's books is his talent for weaving the political aspects of the war into the story. In this book we see the gradual shift of Union War aims from that of preservation of the Union to preservation with Emancipation.

The investigation of McClellan's role is fascinating. I always knew that McClellan was the Democratic nominee for President in 1864. Catton relates how McClellan was a conservative Democrat even before the war. Catton portrays McClellan as leader of the opposition to the administration with the army of the Potomac as his instrument of power. The relationship between the Army and its general forced decisions regarding McClellan's tenure to be made against the back drop of the possibility that McClellan could lead his Army on Washington in an effort to seize control of the government during the prevailing unrest. Ultimately, the decline of the Conservative Democrats, whose goal was the preservation of both the Union and slavery, and the rise of the Pro-Emancipation forces combined to drive McClellan from command and made his removal possible.

This portrayal of McClellan as a leader of the opposition makes Lincoln's toleration of him contrast with President Polk's active efforts to prevent Whig generals, Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, from capturing Mexican War glory which could lead to political success. The later role of Gen. MacArthur as a defacto opposition leader during the Korean war also comes to mind (see my Amazon review of "American Caesar").

"The Terrible Swift Sword" continues the evolution of the war from a limited conflict in which the hope of reconciliation still burned, to an unavoidable, all consuming, fight to the death. The cause which brought about this change was the shift of war aims from mere preservation of the Union, which had a chance of success, to the aim of Emancipation. As the South could not accept Emancipation, the North became unable to accept anything less. This book is a worthy successor to "The Coming Fury" (see my Amazon review). I cannot wait to get into the final volume "Never Call Retreat".

Review of A Place for Theodore by Prudence Steiner The writing of history is difficult. If you're writing about someone or something already well known you face a hoard of kibitzers who question every statement that doesn't fit their preconceptions of the case. If you're writing about something unknown, well, where do you begin? How do you know what to look for? How do you know you have found everything? And how do you know how to organize what you do have? George Williams, in A Place for Theodore, has confronted both problems. Well-known is Charles William Eliot, President of Harvard, notable New Englander from a notable family. Loyal Harvard alumni and conventional historians of higher education already "know" all about him. Virtually unknown is Theodore Parkman, chemist, soldier, who was killed and, literally, lost in a small and complicated Civil War battle at Whitehall, North Carolina in 1862. The intersection of these two lives, the process by which Williams has accounted for what is known to have happened, his speculations about what might have happened and why, form the substance of this paperback (Holly Two Leaves Paperback, ISBN 0-9656484-0-0). Don't expect a tidy narrative. That's not how historians work. Pieces--letters, photos, newspaper clippings, old bullets, public proclamations and private denials--swim into the net or are dredged up from murky corners in an unsystematic way. With each new piece, historians must revise their first ideas about what happened, their earlier interpretations of the causes. Most published histories appear after years of research and speculation have refined and polished them into coherence. Williams has chosen another method. For the most part the book brings us the raw materials in a very rough chronological order. Facing pages may include the author's narrative, original materials, photos or diagrams, in an assemblage of elements that is hard for the casual reader to follow but that accurately and vividly evokes the very process by which historians gather and sort out information. Williams' favorite typographical elements seem to be the question mark and the italic; hardly a page appears without several of both. Ordinarily these devices raise suspicion: how much of this book is true? Why is the writer so insistent? Is he right? But this is not an ordinary book; in the best sense, it is not even a finished book. Rather, it shows the process of writing history, and leaves us, the readers, with a sense of the materials and an eagerness to push on, to learn more about Theodore Parkman and why historians are still looking for him. As a former teacher of research techniques, I commend A Place for Theodore to other teachers as well as to Civil War buffs. You may be irritated, you may disagree with the author's tone and conclusions, but Williams's book will give you an unusual collection of materials as well as valuable insights into the slipperiness of "facts." 12 November 1997

Everyone is aware of friendly-fire and "collateral" deaths in war. The Mai Lai massacre in Viet Nam is the most famous. Incidents from the Gulf War are still in the news. Did a President of Harvard help cover-up the death of a Harvard student? Major George Williams has written an interesting tale using historical documents and the soldier's perspective of war. This book is a unique look at an overlooked incident during America's Civil War.

Everyone is aware of friendly-fire and "collateral" deaths in war. The Mai Lai massacre in Viet Nam is the most famous. Incidents from the Gulf War are still in the news. Did a President of Harvard help cover-up the death of a Harvard student? Major George Williams has written an interesting tale using historical documents and the soldier's perspective of war. This book is a unique look at an overlooked incident during America's Civil War.

A Place for Theodore won a Willie Parker Peace History Book Award from The North Carolina Society of Historians on Nov. 1, 1997. Mr. L.G. Williams also won two other awards for associated projects.

Very detailed description of this battle with very thorough documentation. All of the pages of this inexpensive book were used to the fullest. I felt like I had gotten my moneys worth.Just like being there and some thought provoking conclusions were presented.